HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
AMAZON AND THE BATTLE FOR TOMORROW’S COMMUNITIES
MARKETS WITH HIGHEST PRE-MOVER INDEX Q3 2017
INDEX OF 100 IS NATIONAL AVERAGE
305
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO MANCHESTER-NASHUA, NH CHICAGO-NAPERVILLE-ELGIN, IL-IN-WI
243
222
204
WASHINGTON-ARLINGTON-ALEXANDRIA, DC-VA-MD-WV NASHVILLE-DAVIDSON-MURFREESBORO-FRANKLIN, TN RENO, NV
196
189
TAMPA-ST.PETERSBURG-CLEARWATER, FL LAS VEGAS-HENDERSON-PARADISE, NV JACKSONVILLE, FL KINGSPORT-BRISTOL-BRISTOL, TN-VA
188
180
179 178
a need to import teachers and plumbers from distant locales.
“Buyers today will pay a premium to live on the waterfront or near ski trails, and they will also pay more for homes near leading job centers.”
Buyers today will pay a premium to live on the waterfront or near ski trails, and they will also pay more for homes near leading job centers. In Cupertino and Sunnyvale, California, in the heart of the Silicon Valley, the San Jose Mercury News reported this summer that many listings were attracting bids $200,000 over asking prices. No doubt there are good jobs in both Cupertino and Sunnyvale, the home of such corporate giants as Apple, Lockheed Martin, and Broadcom, but the people who live in such locations are not all business executives, heirs, tech pioneers, or hedge fund moguls. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual mean wage in the San Jose-Sunnyvale- Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area is $78,990.
A study this summer by ATTOM Data Solutions found that “since bottoming out nationwide in Q1 2012, median home prices nationwide have increased 69 percent while average weekly wages have increased 9 percent during the same time period.” Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), explained in April that “home prices have risen by 41 percent and rents have climbed 17 percent over the past five years at a time when the typical worker wage has grown by only 11 percent.” Freddie Mac sees it this way: “house price growth has outpaced income growth by a cumulative 42 percent over the last 17 years.”
The affordability gap looks at general numbers nationwide but in high-cost areas the affordability gap is far more severe. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the cumulative housing shortfall in California “has expanded to two million units. With home prices and rents hitting all- time highs, nearly half of the state’s households struggle to afford housing in their local market.” McKinsey estimates that “the housing shortage causes the state to lose $140 billion in annual output, or 6 percent of state GDP.” One by-product of steep housing costs is that these areas have become real estate rich but in some ways impoverished with
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DECEMBER 2017 | ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS
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